Establishments such as hotels, bars, public houses, clubs and the like often run games and competitions in addition to their core services to increase custom and revenue. Typically, patrons of an establishment purchase one or more entries to a competition, usually in the form of a ticket or similar, the ticket having a unique identifier, such as a unique number, for that particular competition. Alternatively, the ticket(s) may be given to patrons upon the purchase of one or more specific products or upon spending over a threshold amount of money. At some point after sales of the tickets have ceased, a draw or other form of random selection process takes place in which one of the ticket numbers from a pool of ticket numbers is selected. The patron who purchased the ticket having the same number as the randomly selected number wins the competition and typically wins a prize or entry into a subsequent competition, such as a grand draw or the like.
Whilst such competitions boost revenue for the establishment and provide entertainment for the patrons, the increase in revenue is limited by the number of patrons in the establishment during the period in which the tickets are sold.
One attempt to address this problem is to repeat the competition throughout the day and/or night. However, this has only met with limited success because of, for example, the capacity limitation of the establishment and the diminishing appeal of the competition over time to patrons repeatedly exposed to the same competition, for example, in one night.
Attempts at increasing the revenue obtained from gaming and gambling have included conveying the games being played to a wider audience. For example, US 2002/0147047 discloses a system and method to enable people to gamble from remote locations. The system includes a video camera that relays images of a live game, such as roulette or black jack, to remote locations to enable people at the remote locations to participate in the game by placing bets on the game being played. The system is also capable of playing archived footage of previously played games at the remote locations. A similar system is also disclosed in US 2005/0159212.
Although these systems and methods communicate games to a wider audience, including beyond the confines of the casino or similar establishment, and therefore are likely to increase revenue, they do not encourage players to attend the venue(s) and the players have no interaction with patrons of the venue(s).
Similar systems are also disclosed in EP673004 and WO 02/13932. EP673004 employs the closed circuit television system of an establishment, such as a hotel, to relay images of a gaming area to the hotel rooms. Although this system enables patrons to participate in the games from the comfort of their hotel rooms, a person has to be staying at the hotel to take advantage of this system. Another disadvantage of this system is that whilst the patron is playing the game, the central computer disconnects the telephone line in the hotel room. This system therefore disables another potential revenues stream for the hotel because the patron is unable to, for example, make outside calls or order room service via the hotel room phone whilst using the system.
WO 02/15995 discloses an interactive game system in which games are broadcast via television networks and utilise participants' set top boxes and televisions. In one embodiment of the invention, the set top boxes comprise video cameras and a microphone to capture images and sound of the participant, which are transmitted to a server system. Participants are thus able to view the other participants of the game and, for example, a game show host. Whilst this system provides a suitable method of interactive game play, it does not encourage people to visit an establishment nor does it have the potential to increase the revenue of the establishment. Furthermore, only those with suitable equipment can participate.
Hence, there is a need for a method, system and/or apparatus that addresses or at least ameliorates one or more of the aforementioned problems of the prior art or provides a useful commercial alternative.
In this specification, the terms “comprises”, “comprising” or similar terms are intended to mean a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a method, system or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include those elements solely, but may well include other elements not listed.